70 
Tue PATTENSONS OF PENRITH. 
In the latter part of the 17th and the beginning of the 18th 
centuries, there were two leading men in Penrith, John Pattenson, 
father and son, both attorneys-at-law. John Pattenson, the elder, 
married Mary, the daughter of Roger Sleddel, Esq., and Susanna, 
his wife, April, 1672. Mr. Pattensen purchased the estate of 
Berks, or Breeks, in Westmorland, where his eldest son Thomas 
eventually resided, and from whence he came to Melmerby to 
marry Elizabeth, heiress of William Threlkeld, owner of the 
Melmerby Hall estate, and became founder of the family of 
Melmerby Pattensons. John Pattenson, the younger, purchased 
Carleton Hall and estate from the heiress of Robert Carleton, the 
last of his line. Now going back to the first John Pattenson, we 
will notice the baptismal register of his third child— 
1677—June. Susanna, daughter of Mr. John Pattenson, and 
Mary, his wife. 
Eighteen months earlier we find— 
1675—November. Richard, son of Anthony Hutton, Esq., and 
Ann his wife, baptized. 
Now following these two babies up until Richard is of the mature 
age of r9 and Susanna is nearly 18, let us see if we cannot get a 
bit of romance out of the musty old registers, which tell us as 
follows :— 
1695—April 23. Mr. Richard Hutton, of Gale, and Mrs. Susanna 
Pattenson, of Penrith, were married at Salkeld by Mr. 
Archdeacon Nicolson. 
A stolen wedding evidently, a sort of young Lochinvar affair. The 
Gale here given, as the gallant Richard’s residence, is a small 
Manor and Hall on the Fellsides near Melmerby, then belonging 
to the Penrith Huttons. Now, from what we have seen of the 
Pattensons of Penrith, the pretty Susanna was no mean match for 
a Hutton of Hutton Hall, but it can be readily understood that 
the venerable aristocrats of Hutton Hall thought otherwise, and 
banished poor Dick to the Gale, with the expectation that the 
